Saints, Brown men's hockey battle to 3-3 tie

Friday, November 9, 2012 - 11:45 pm

The streak continues for Brown University's men's hockey team in its series with St. Lawrence University as the Bears rallied from a 3-0 deficit to escape with a 3-3 tie at Meehan Auditorium on Friday night, assuring the Bears at least one point in a season against the Saints for the 21st straight year.

Brown went into Friday's game with a 4-2-1 record against the Saints in their last seven meetings and is the only team among the Saints 11 ECAC opponents toJeremy Wick opened the scoring for the Saints at Brown on Friday. Photo by Wally Johnson. have taken at least one point from the Saints in every one of the last 21 years. It looked like the Saints were going to walk out of Meehan Auditorium with their second straight win when Justin Bruckel gave them a 3-0 lead with under five minutes to go in the second period, but the Bears battled back.

"It's frrustrating because we had the game well in hand with a 3-0 lead on the road and controlled it for two periods, but then they got a goal that gave them some life and they took advantage of it," said Saint coach Greg Carvel. "We hopefully learned a lesson the tough way...we have to play hard and consistently for the full 60 minutes like we have been doing."

Freshman Taki Pantziris scored his first collegiate goal when he chipped a pass from Nick Lappin over the stick of Saint goalie Matt Weninger with 47 seconds left in the second period and sophomore Matt Lorito scored third period goals just 2:32 apart to pull the Bears even. Brown thought it had a win with just over 45 seconds left in the five minute overtime period, but it was ruled after video review that a player was in the crease when Dennis Robertson's shot from the center point went under the crossbar.

Brown outshot the Saints 34-20, but Weninger was solid in goal with 31 saves to earn the tie and push the Saint unbeaten streak to five games."Wenny was huge...we were outshot, but not outplayed, but he made some key stops for us when it was tied and in overtime," Carvel added.

Jeremy Wick opened the scoring for the Saints when he took a pass from defenseman Jordan Dewey and beat Brown starter Marco DiFilippo from the top of the right faceoff circle at 18:53 of the first. It went to 2-0 when Kyle Flanagan scored his seventh of the year on a Saint power play 11:55 into the second. Flanagan took a pass from George Hughes, cut to the middle and snapped a shot over the shoulder of DiFilippo with Greg Carey also assisting.

Sophomore Justin Bruckel made it a 3-0 game with his first collegiate goal on a partial breakaway at 15:45, taking a lead pass from Justin Baker and chasing DiFilippo from the net with his goal and a 3-0 Saint lead.

Lappin, the son of former Saint All America Pete Lappin, started the Brown comeback when he fought off a good Saint defensive play and backhanded a pass to Pantziris for the first Brown goal late in the second. Lorito then made it a 3-2 game when he tapped home a rebound of a shot by Dennis Robertson which Weninger got a pad on, but couldn't control at 3:12 of the third. Lorito then tied it at 5:44, just 15 seconds into a Brown power play, as Robertson again took the initial shot and Lorito directed it through Weninger's pads from the top of the crease.

Both teams had chances to win it in regulation, but Weninger and Brown reliever Anthony Borelli prevented further scoring and Brown was able to come away with its come-from-behind tie.